Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email CQQRS in your browser RagChew Edition 45/2024 Jordan's Hallowe’en Special? e RSN a Naw OA_-Cada? v RSS earn eses e DXperiment - Fun for All e Distracted by Hallowe’en e Tassie to Spain on 80m e Kentucky Fried Callsign Confusion? e Antennas always Take Linger than e QCX-mini Build e Seven Parts Expected 7 & 8 Foot High, 400kg e John’s QCX+ Build e SKCC 2025 e Research e My First ZL e Brain Teaser e Di-dah-di-dah-dit Straight Key Month Help Needed e About the CQ QRS This week’s CQQRS Group RagChew comes from Grenfell NSW; library compiling the newsletter a day late. assemble the RagChew sitting in the | use the MailChimp system to each week - an on-line application which of course requires a reasonable Internet connection to work - and the campground we're staying at has very little mobile phone coverage. time this week, an unscheduled run into town; So for the second the first one was the day after we arrived... when | found that I’d added too much litres of water we carry. Luckily we carried lots of bottles of drinking water bleach to the 80 in the car - so we didn’t die of thirst... but one of life’s necessities - a cuppa tea - wasn’t on the cards. | was concentrating on the DXperiment team on 15, 17 and 20m, and what with setting up camp, antenna, the radio gear, dinner etc, the six hour CQQRS net just flew by once again. Without the Internet, | couldn’t use the KiwiSDRs to check on band conditions or activity on 40m few folks | chatted to were coming in to NSW or 80m, but the nicely, despite the S8 static crashes. RSN Those who are new to our get-togethers may have noticed that some of the team use RSN instead of RST for on-air reports. These days, the T in RST (Tone) is pretty much redundant... continued use. came up with the idea that a more useful Someone but tradition has dictated its indication of conditions is to replace the T with N - with N indicating the noise level. So an RSN 598 indicates that the signal strength is S9 (50uV) and the noise level (eg static crashes, switch mode power supply hash, etc) is strength 8 (ie about 25uV) - and a signal-to-noise ratio of 6dB. Similarly, an RSN of 359 probably indicates that the noise level is 4 Spoints higher than the signal level - hence the Q3. Speaking of noise - at this time of year, thunderstorms are very common in our region - and | wonder whether there’s a quicker way of telling the other operator that you’re experiencing static crashes.... spelling it out QRS is time-consuming. codes? Any thoughts? Perhaps we create some of our own Q- Those who have been reading the RagChew for a while (we’re into our forth year!) may recognise QDM POETS Day). ‘doing a Max’ (which is similar to Last Tuesday’s Group So back to the CQQRS get-togethers. Here’s this week’s list of the 52 stations heard: CQQRS Team Member cq qso1 Qso 2 Qso 3 qso4 qso5 aso6 QsSO7 Qsos Heard 20m Worked 17m Worked 20m Heard 20m Worked 15m Worked 20m Heard on air Worked 40m Worked 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Tried 40m Worked 15m Worked 20m Heard 15m Heard 17m Tried 17m Heard 20m Tried 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard on air Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Heard 15m Worked 20m Heard 20m Tried 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Heard on air Heard 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Tried 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Heard 40m Tried 40m Worked 80m Heard on air Worked 40m Worked 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Tried 40m Worked 17m Heard 40m Heard on air Masthead Image Just in time for Hallowe’en? Nope - Jordan VK3ACU’s home Find out more in On My Workbench below. heating for the farm? latest project! New Reports After next Tuesday’s Group, please send me a list of who you worked and / or who you heard using our web form here: bit.ly/COORSNET Submissions close lunch time on Thursday. If you hear or work one of our team on a different band on Tuesday, just use the 80m And when you enter the list of callsigns worked, append please report area and annotate which bit applies to which band. heard or missed, please an ‘@band’ to each callsign without a space (eg VK2KI@20 VK6QI@15 etc). The head of our software department, Nigel G4RWI has continued to work furiously to produce a simple way of reporting on contacts with our team outside of 40 and 80m; | have a Beta version sitting on my pile of projects waiting to be tested. Please help attract new and old team members to have a go by submitting your report each week. Cheers, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark.bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione cogitationis Reports & Comments Here’s this week’s reports. The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group. Comments distilled from the reports I’ve received follow: Comments: From Simon MOKB] at Wolverhampton: [20m]] e | was working from home with my half-size G5RV, which is up 8m in the autumn gloom. We haven't seen the sun or felt a breeze for days as a patch of high pressure has settled across the UK. e At 0650z | saw on the RBN club call logger that ZL3XD) was on 14033 but | couldn't reach him.. * Back to my allocated frequency of 14.045MHz, first up was Patrick VK2IOW, who's signal started at 539 but became 599 as the 20m opened up. We band were perfectly aligned on the greyzone during our QSO. Pat told me that the temperature west of Sydney was 25C as the sun set. It was just 9C under our flat grey sky. ¢ | heard a very faint signal and just about made out VK2WP, which is the callsign of Wallis in Bathurst, not far from Pat. It took me a while to pick out his callsign and we couldn't get much farther into the QSO. | think he sent me RST 419. | sent 519 back.. [17m] ¢ | switched to the 17m band, 18.085MHz, e Claude F6IHU in Burgundy, at 0800z and worked:. under thick fog and cooler than the UK at TC. e Esa OH1GU in Turku, SE Finland, with a very strong signal for his 8W.. e Valery UB3DRM e Wolfgang near Moscow. DM2GYN in eastern Germany on a homebrew set. | was on 18.085.4MHz and heard clicking. | found him TXing to me on 18.085.1 so | had to keep re-tuning on each over. | must find out how to use RIT on the G90. From KETUT VK3BWN at NR MELB [40m] ¢ VK1TE/M coming in very faint. Thanks for the QSO and hpe cu agn in better condx.. From John VKS5ET at Hope Valley [40m] ¢ Fair bit of qsb during qsos. [80m] « 80 M Very quiet, nil stations heard. Hi Mark. It was good to hear VK3DRQ trying to make contact with MOKJB, other station VK3IOW was having better success with MOKJB, lIOW ) was using a 1/2 wave G5RV. heard that he ( VK3 before he signed off. Signals were weak but great to listen in. | only put up a new ZS6BKW morning. couple days ago & finished the tidying up this Different orientation this time,, NNW - SSE. & well away from my tower. Glad its all over ( antenna installation ) up & down ladder like a monkey , Hi Hi. Hope you enjoyed ( or still are ) enjoying your trip away. 73, John VK5ET From David VK6KD/4 at Bargara (near Bundaberg QLD) [40m] ¢ Approaching storm created many static crashes early in the evening. Appeared to quiet down later on. [80m] ¢ Most of the 80m band appeared very quiet from my QTH From Jordan VK3ACU in Bargara QLD. at Meredith [40m] ¢ Made some good contacts but | was majorly distracted tonight with my latest project. e It weights over 400kg stands about 7 ft tall and transmits CW (and AM). From Ross MONNK at Exeter UK [20m] ¢ On 20m, Manny VK3DRQ worked hard to pull my weak signal out of his noise floor (he gave me RSN 222; | gave him RSN 331). Even before we had finished properly, he was being called by strong Italian and French stations who were keen for a VK contact and swamped both our signals. [15m] « My signal was even weaker on 15m - Pat VK2IOW gave me an RST of 419 (I gave him 549). But any UK_VK contact is an achievement and it doesn't matter what the signal strength is if you manage to pass meaningful information. So, "thank you", Manny and Pat. From lan VK7TA at Latrobe [40m] ¢« Called CQ a couple of times but no takers. Struggled to find stations, but those | did hear were good signals. [80m] e | tried my 40m vertical with the internal ATU. | just managed to hear EA3HTZ above the noise.. [Tassie to Spain on the 80m grey line - great work lan]. From Garry VK2GAZ at Richmond [40m] ¢ Brought out my old FT-817 and it worked just fine. Conditions at my QTH not so good. From Arthur VK2ASB at Wentworth Falls [40m] * From my QTH, early in the night, the noise was S3 to S9 but the signals were good both ways - | was given and gave 599 plus for most signals _ so the noise was not a problem and when disappeared. | went down to 50Hz it almost | didn't bother checking 80M, it having lacked activity for so long but according to Murphy's Law, this was the night when 80M was abuzz with activity. Had a quick chat with Garry VK2GAZ, haven't spoken to Garry since 2018, well before my accident when year. | went QRT for over a It's nice to catch up with old friends. From Richard VK6HRC at Padbury [40m] * Variable conditions with QSB taking signals down From Roy VK6RR into the noise at times. at Geraldton WA [40m] * Band a bit noisy, & couldn't stay long. From John VK2RU at Tamworth [40m] ¢« The CW gremlins were out in force tonight. Lots of QRN which made things difficult, and then QSB which left me trying to copy a signal which wasn't strong enough to show up on the waterfall. | got a bit of it. Then a strong wind came from nowhere and | had to take the squid pole down. From Mathew V VK3AFH at Wantirna [40m] * Couldn't hear much early on, but sigs started coming « Pen and paper copy practice went much in after dark. better this week, three hours later| had three A4 pages worth of QSOs in front of me. An improvement over last time! ¢ My favourite part of the night was when Manny initially copied Greg's callsign as KFC instead of KFG, and | was waiting for the correction - | felt | could clearly hear the emphasis on the kf*G* in the next over. Great to hear another example of that happening, having done that myself (doesn't always go according to script) - Thanks all! [Yup... From l’'ve had the same Peter VK7KPC trouble with Greg’s callsign! at Evandale :) ] [40m] e Not sure what happened with Stan. Frequency in use changed due to interference. VK3DRQ answered last week's question and Stan sent this week's question. Must have been noisy in vK3 as several repeat requests sent. | tried calling Stan after and got no reply. My noise level was only 1 so had 3 fairly quick QSOs with Peter’s Traffic Participation Award? From Patrick VK2IOW Arthur, John and Jordan. at Between Bathurst and Orange [80m] e Nice QSOs with Simon, MOKB] on 20metres and Ross, MONNK on 15 metres. From Peter VK6IS at wundowie [40m] e lots of stations heard.,. ¢ but not able to work 'em.. [80m] e still little activity on this band,. e here in the west.. From your Editor Mark VK2KI at the Weddin Mountains National Park near Grenfell Ms Elizabeth and | decided to not travel very far for our camping trip - Ben Hall's Cave campground 20km West of Grenfell in the Weddin NSW. Mountains National Park, Should have been only about two hours drive to get here... 1030 departure with a couple of stops along the way... but sure enough, after setting up our little AVan, come time for the net to start, and guess who was still trying to get the ZSOBKW doublet (a GSRV with different balanced feeder and radiator lengths) up in the trees? | should be getting used to it by now | guess.. So by the time | turned on my FT-817 and adjusted the antenna coupler, the time was 0730z. [15m] ¢ On 15m | heard Manny VK3DRQ LCD segments. | think | could just hear a very weak signal that may or may not have been Ross MONNK. at Blackburn Q5 but not moving the S- [|1/mM|] ¢ On 17m Simon was marginal better RSN311 and | could also hear Peter VK6IS; although | tried calling Simon, that was also to no ava [20m] 20m was alive with static crashes but | heard Patrick K2IOW coming through nicely ith a short skip from Milthorpe. , could just hear Simon RSN 211. | tried calling Simon with my 5000mW when MOKB} and was excited he responded... but | Suspect he was answering omeone ¢ | also heard Wal VK2WP and Manny VK3DRQ else - on well! before moving to 17m to try Simon again. [40m] ¢ Despite the static crashes, it sounded when like 40m was rocking along nicely | slipped down for a listen. had a quick chat with both Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith and Jonn VK5ET at Hope Valley; both were RSN 598 to me. e After dinner | heard Allen VK5FD at Blakeview chatting to David VK6KD/4 at Bargara, just East of Bundaberg. also heard Ketut VK3BWN at Keillor East working Claude VK1TE/m NSW, near Burra both with solid signals. It was toss-up who to call, having not said g'day to either for months. Claude got the vote this time because | Knew he'd been busy house-building and Nadn't been able to get on the net much. [80m] e By the time | got to 80m, it was after 11pm and | was battling with the bugs attracted to the light. Quite distracting having things buzzing around the ear buds | was using. 588 among the static crashes. Post Morsum Report | caught up with David VK6KD/4 who was RSN From Richard VK6HRC AllStar network problems played havoc with the Post Morsum voice net on Wednesday Some morning. unable to log on and others suffering multiple drop outs, a real mess I On this morning : VKE6ENW Wayne VK6FN Max VK6PAW Glyn VK6HRC_ Richard SWL check in VK6KRC Wayne and mulligan VK6MRB had three contacts on 40 Mx also had some technical problems which he managed to sort out and keep going. Max also had technical problems but wisely decided to leave it for another day. | had two contacts on 40 Mx and one on 80Mx Many thanks for persevering gentlemen. Received reports by other means from David and Mark, our wandering members: From David VK6KD/4 Sorry vk6hrc Richard and post morsum report team. Vk6-hub is not connected so | can't log onto the repeater in Perth. Catch you all next week. 73s vk6kd/4 From Mark VK6QI Good morning working. Post Morsumers. Yes, it looks like the VK-HUB Echolink is working on the Mandurah Echolink isn't Repeater VK6RMH, but the AllStar node is not connected to the rest of the network this morning. away camping at the moment between Mandurah I'm so | can't manually make the connection and the rest of the network using my own node (because | turned it off when | left home). Australia with my 5 Watts and ZS6BKW | had some success within (modified G5RV) doublet (including to David at Bargara just out of Bundaberg on 80m... his TX decided to work on 80 this time). Also worked Jordan VK3ACU, John VK5ET and Claude VK1TE/m near Burra NSW. MONNK portable this time. Heard Simon MOKB] on 20m but not Ross Thanks go out to all on last night and this morning. 73 Richard VK6HRC [Thank you Richard - better luck next week all.] This Week’s Bf Topic of Ue — Interest QCX-mini Build by Ross The AGC - Part 7 MONNK Board | was wondering why | had something the optional AGC module. left over at the end of the build...it’s Normally you build the QCX-mini with the Automatic Gain Control either permanently On or permanently Off. This module allows you to turn it on and off through the menu system. The instructions say, “there are 5 holes on the main PCB that line up exactly with the 5 holes on the AGC module. Installation is therefore exceptionally easy using 5 component lead off-cuts to make the connection between the two boards.” The trick with getting the tiny board onto all those five wires is to cut them to different lengths, then you can insert them one at a time. | realise now that | could have done it the other way round and soldered the wires to the module first (that way would’ve been a little bit easier). I’ve had another look in the box and there’s just the case, a couple of knobs and a power lead so | think that Part 8 will be the Final Assembly | promised you last week! QCX-mini Build by Ross Assembly, Testing...and - Part 8 MONNK Operating! All that’s left to do now, as far as Assembly goes, is to press the preprogrammed ATmega328P microcontroller into the DIP socket and ease the Display Board down onto the Main Board. | powered it up with an 11.7 volt power supply and the Blue Smoke come out! Yeee-haaar! didn’t Some testing and “Alignment” has to be done before the circuit boards Slab is put into the protective aluminium case. This Alignment process is done using these four screws... For some strange reason, operators like to squeeze as much power out of their QRP radios as possible. I’m not one of them. QRP is QRP. If you want higher power, get a more powerful radio. Power measurements are tricky if you don’t have the right gear (I don’t have a Power Meter). The Build Manual has the following graph for expected 20m 1 2 6 rm ‘Me a7 power output: nia I: 11.66 YW iu: 467 mA 11.65 11.7v Here are my measurements current consumption of during RX and TX taken from the power Supply. Subtract the power during Receive from the power during Transmission and you get the power going out to the antenna connector (or do you?), which in this case equals 3.6 watts. I'm sure the power transistors waste energy in the form of heat. And the display backlight consumes there's some 20 mW. So lost watts there, reducing the output power below the indicated 3.6 watts. So my radio appears to be “right on the money”. But Mike DL3YZ has pointed out that this is not a reliable way of measuring RF power output - this power could be being consumed by some short circuit or resonance on the boards and not going out of the antenna connector at all. So more measurements e The QCX-mini has a built-in RF power were called for... meter. But this uses only a simple diode detector so there are several cautions in the Build Manual as to its accuracy. e It gives a reading of 2.6 watts. Using an oscilloscope to measure the Vp-p and Vrms across a 50 ohm dummy load and doing the maths gives 6.3 watts. That’s more power coming out than the power going in! Hey, I’ve built a generator - free energy anyone? So, which is it? 2.6 watts, 3.6 watts, or 6.3 watts? Who cares? - it’s time to wrestle it into its case and get operating. ss First Tx with QCX-mini | Sverige ‘Benapyce Y«xpain Romania’ ..and a nice QSO with Morris ON6DC/A in Antwerp, Belgium. Needless to say, I’m VERY pleased with my QCX-mini! [What a fantastic series of articles Ross. Thank you so much for taking to time to share the fun of this terrific little project! And with 40m percolating along so well these days, | reckon others will be having a go as well. Needless to say, my ‘fix the (tr)uUSDX project’ is looking a bit shakey!] > ef Ore: Onn r OP > 4? ae SSG Pre On The Latest from My Workbench Meredith [Seven foot high, weighing 400kg... what could possibly go wrong with Jordan’s latest project? A TCA 1660B MF Beacon Transmitter. | hope we'll hear more about this monster in future RagChews... where did it come from, how come it has only 290 hours on the Clock, which NDB was it used in, how come the audio modulation tubes are heavier than the PA tube, how did you get it into your shack, Update what did you say to your lady wife etc?] on my QCX+ build from John VK2RU The QCX+ build is slowly getting there. | just have to install the AGC module and that's the main board finished. | put the back panel on to keep all the connectors perfectly lined up before soldering because the connectors fit through the panel with no room for movement at all. They have to be positioned perfectly. The small toroids were much easier to wind and install than the larger transformer. Apart from getting the number of turns right, the most important thing is to burn the enamel off the wiring. | followed the QRP Labs instructions and kept the soldering iron on the wires for about 10 seconds after applying solder. Easy to check with a multimeter once they are soldered into place. I've used my LCR-T4 component tester to check all the components before installing them - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/313032423366 The tester will check resistors, transistors, diodes, LED's, inductors and capacitors. Here it is with a transistor, and with a MOSFET. | also have this tester - httos://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3140 34238909 , which only tests inductors and capacitors, and is supposed to be more accurate than the LCR-T4. For about $25 each I've found these very useful. 73 John VK2RU [Thanks John. Those little testers look pretty amazing - thanks for the pointers. ] Straight Key Century Club - 2025 Straight Key Month from Ron VKAJE My name is Ron VK4JE #24961, having a go at trying to fill Garry VK2GAZ shoes as the SKCC Oceania Coordinator for the 2025 K3Y Straight Key Month. The 2025 Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) Annual upon us, aS a SKCC K3Y month will soon be member you are invited to join in this yearly event. The K3Y starts on the 2nd of January and runs through until the 31st of January. Please consider taking part, | am sure that the 'Old Hands' will enjoy catching up with other SKCC members members throughout the month, for those who are like me, still trying to get to the fun side of CW, | hope this event help relieve some of the nervous tension that we all experience mastering this unique skill. The SKCC K3Y - 2025 Non US Operators Guide Is available on line here: https://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/k3ydocs/K3Y_2024 Non US Operator Guide.pdf. To register for the 2025 K3Y event, please email me at vk4je@vk4je.com | hope you will find the time and courage to participate to some degree and | certainly look forward to working you during the K3Y month. If you have any questions regarding the 2025 K3Y event, please do not hesitate to contact me. Cheers, Ron VK4JE SKCC # 24961 SKCC K3Y OC Coordinator vk4je@vk4je.com [Thanks Ron - big shoes to fill!] Other Other things Can You News I’ve received from Help Ross do some our 200-odd readers. Research? from Ross MONNK Our "Remembrance women) Day" (when we remember our fallen servicemen takes place on 11 November day of the eleventh month). and (the eleventh hour of the eleventh In anticipation of that event, | visited the official war graves in my local cemetery and noticed that there's one for an Australian. 416939 Flight Sergeant Allan E D Davey of the Royal Australian Air Force who died on 26 February 1944 aged 22 “Loved and remembered fondly by his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He died that others might have a future." Frese pics His parents were Horace and Dora Davey of Fullarton (Adelaide), South Australia. See attached photos. lt would be good to let his descendants Know that his grave is still being respected and cared for here in England. | can try to do some research about his family but the internet sources never give details of anyone who is still alive so it will probably be difficult for me to contact them. Is there anyone in the QRS group from South Australia who might be able to help me in my quest, even if it's just to point me in the right direction? Ross [lf you think you can helo point Ross in the right direction, please contact him by email ross.waddams@qmail.com] Correction to Last Week’s From RagChew Kees VK1KVS Just a small correction, as | was just pointed out re your Masthead paragraph in the last RagChew, which | must have missed. The Simplex was not designed and built by Ron McMullen Cohen in the 1920s. (now SK), but by Leopold Ron was also ex-PMG telegraphist, but not into building jiggers, only collecting. Sadly, Ron passed away 30 September 2023. What he did was to classify the Simplex-Auto models and he also kept an index. He was a font of Knowledge and sadly missed. Just to prevent any confusion! Best regards, Kees VK1LKVS [Thanks Kees - sorry that | mis-understood your article. Ron lived in Yass NSW (my nearest major town) and has an extensive reference library of keys available here: https://australiantelegraph.wordpress.com/about/contents-2/ / My First ZL From Simon MOKB) Cinsnn SHTION AAOWe WIE i¥ } Just got my first ZL & Brian ZL3XDJ in Waikiouaiti, nr Dunedin, all the way from Wolves, UK with 20W and bit of bent wire. I'm grinning all day! DE MOKBJ 7:39PM [Simon MOKB] near Wolverhampton’s image of his half-sized G5RV doublet at home; well done getting to ZL on 20 Watts Simon... the joys of the solar cycle peak at work.] Morse Training Nic VK7WW Net runs a Slow Morse training net every Wednesday at 7pm EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club VK7TAZ Many of our team on that net. learned Morse code with the support of Nic, and the weekly training session comes highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up. Everyone’s welcome - 3580KHz at 7pm The NTARC also feeds the CW Eastern time every Wednesday. via the Discord phone / computer audio stream, and previous weeks’ live recordings are available. Contact Nic VK7WW for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com - or just join in on Wednesdays. Brain Teaser How did you go? Jules Perrin JP VK3JFP has created a terrific resource to help guide learning for all levels of amateur radio licenses: httos://jwww.julesworkshop.net/Amateur%20Radio.html! Running out of battery.... next week! Answers from last week’s Quiz: Describe an isotropic antenna. Answer: Isotropic antenna is a theoretical antenna that radiates the same in all directions. The basic filter characteristic drawn e below, represents that of a low pass e high pass 2 e bandpass 2 e bandstop Answer:low pass Frequency Distortion occurring in a non-linear device driven by a signal containing more than one frequency is called e frequency distortion e phase distortion harmonic distortion e intermodulation distortion Answer: Intermodulation distortion How did you go? Di-dah-di-dah-dit Here So back to the Slow CW QSO we go. practice Group. | finished the newsletter in the beer garden of a pub un Grenfell... actually the one joy of daylight saving - HI! Next Tuesday’s Net Our CQ QRS Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0700z until about 1300z; see below for details. Doesn't matter whether you’re brand new and want to try just exchanging callsigns and RST reports, or you’re ready for a good old rag chew. We'll have fun. Reports Please let me know via our Reports form bit.ly/CQQRSNET who you work or hear on Tuesday’s Group. The report form closes at lunchtime on Thursday. Post Morsum Richard VK6HRC will run our phone Post Morsum on the South West AllStar net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time, then from 0700 WA time on 80m (3605 LSB). For the 0600 (2200z) net, if you’re in WA all you need is an FM 2m or 70cm transceiver and an AllStar node nearby. If you’re elsewhere in the world, you may be able to connect your local AllStar-enabled repeater to the net, or you can connect via Echolink. Let me know (cgagrsnet@gmail.com) if | can help with that. and if you can’t connect that way, give 3605kHz SSB a try from 0700 (23002). Teamwork Thank you so much to our team of 27 contributors: VK1KVS, VK2ASB, VK2GAS, VK3BWN, VK3DRQ, VK2GAZ, VK2IOW, DL3YZ, MOKBJ, MONNK, VK2RU, VK3ACU, VK3AFH, VK3JFP, VK3KEV, VK4JE, VK5ET, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6KD/4, VK6EMK, VKENW, VK6RR, VK7KPC, VK7TA The Joy of Daylight Saving There's usually people around until after 1300z on the Tuesday Group - so keep calling in the segment of the band designated you catch someone. in the table below until | should be on as usual from home in NSW or via the Remote at Bedfordale WA, and I'll also be watching the proceedings using the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW respectively. Hope to hear you there. €U CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark.bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione cogitationis An Ode to CW Tan Ale - thanks to David VK3RU: AF RIAD carb Awe arn AKAle 1 uday> Ul VIC, WHICTI Up> WEre VUld, And sideband was not invented, i: pa Words were passed by pounding brass, And all were quite contented. BLLLIN. He - Unknown author About the CQ QRS Group Here’s the details. The team will be on again for our usual Tuesday arvo / evening Practice QSO Group. Frequencies and Times Jeo mr mo Coordinated 2C .".. COPING . ry VayliQit T a S3aVi odv! Universal Time Western Australia Time Australia Prmx«,."= IAaV “j 0700z to 1300z UTC +8 Hours 1500 to 2100 Central Australian Time UTC + 10.5 Hours 1730 to 2330 Eastern Australian Time UTC + 11 Hours 1800 to 2400 Queensland Time UTC + 10 Hours 1700 to 2300 NZ Time UTC + 13 Hours 2000 to 0200 New Zealand Frequency 0700z to 0900z 0900z to 1100z 0900z to 1300z Post Morsum 40m 7020kHz - 7040kHz 40m 7020kHz - 7040kHz 80m 3540kHz - 3570kHz 80m 3540kHz - 3570kHz Wednesday (VK/ZL) 2200z - 2300z WA FM AllStar Network (direct or via Echolink) QRL? So tune around and call anyone you hear, or find yourself a quiet spot in the designated segment, send “QRL?” and if the frequency is quiet, start calling CQ QRS at about 75% of the speed you're comfortable receiving at; hopefully responders will match (or send slower to their comfort level). And if you are already having a QSO and someone sends “QRL?”, respond with “R”, “C”, “Y”, “YES” or QRL to let the caller know that the frequency is in use. If we’re on 40m and you can hear that the band is open outside Australasia, perhaps consider calling 500HzZ above each 1kHz slot - to minimise the chance of having to copy our team through QRQ QRM often dead-on Speed? the kHz Rhythm? markers. that’s If you’re proficient at CW and can race along at 20 or 30wpm - terrific, but please remember, the Group’s aim is to encourage participation and learning, not show how fast you can hammer the key. Please send slowly where you can and concentrate on rhythm - listen to your side-tone, get that wrist action going and make a special effort to make perfect CW; how many it sound like the longer we go with our Group, the more | understand just non-transmitting listeners we have - and they will most likely appreciate your QRS! So, if you’re an experienced operator, please try to send nicely balanced slow CW to give them a chance to practice and gain confidence.... they’ reward you one day by coming good up on air to say g’day and thanks - how is that? And if you’re new or like me, just rusty.... ignore the above... just have a go - the lather of sweat will be worth it and there’s plenty of time to get the details sorted out as you practice. Matching And also for the oldies like me, when you hear someone their sending speed - or slower. new, please match The person you’re replying to may not be as deft on the decoding as you - it may be their first ever CW QSO remember your first? Lather of sweat, key that refuses to send that you tell it, brain that refuses to decode those complex letters that were right there half an hour ago, etc! PSE QRS And if someone is sending too fast to comfortably copy - “PSE RPT PSE QRS” PSE or “AGN? QRS” will make life easier for everyone.... and might just encourage other listeners to have a go themselves. The other thing to remember - most operators are writing down what they hear... so when you put it back to them, expect a delay while they read your words of wisdom, Whose frequency before replying. is this anyway? The aim is to give everyone a go at contacting others - no-one owns their calling frequency in this Group. So unlike working someone DX, if you hear signing off - jump in and call - doesn’t matter who was first on the frequency - we really are all good mates in this Group.... and besides, at the speed we’re sending, after a QSO most of us will have forgotten who was first! If you really want to move off frequency (eg because of a spurious switch mode power supply signal that’s just drifted into the conversation), you could try sending an abridged callsign of the person you’re after, followed by “UP 5” or “DN 5” then K; freauencv and then call that person on the designated keen vour finaers crossed. thev mav have understood vou wy ee and followed... Landing moog tg rw wr wey ey te ww wr rere er pe or not. Zone If the band goes really quiet, call and listen on 7032KkHz (7028kHz secondary) or 3555kHz. If you catch someone, there’s no need to QSY enjoy the frequency. But don’t forget to tune around if it’s quiet - we have lots of operators with crystal locked transmitters - and they could be anywhere within the segments. For those who are locked, or can only transmit outside the segments, send a message on our WhatsApp CQ QRS - Alerts group advising of your current frequency. And of course, put the frequencies in a memory so outside of the Group, if you’re not tuning around, leave your receiver on one of the primary frequencies - you never know who you'll hear (7032 is used in VK and ZL for SOTA/ PARKS during the day so you'll often hear activity there). CW Tips As always, for newbies, operating suggestions are available from the operating hints link here: httos://www.parg.org.au/ files/ugd/ebe236_ 3ca5ca08bb38429db4eee524b da2f97a.pdf. mb VK2KI / VK6QI The opinions expressed The opinions Send in the RagChew do not necessarily comments newsletter are those of the individual contributors. reflect that of the editor or of the CQ about the RagChew Copyright (C) 2024 QRS Group members. Newsletter. CQ QRS. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe Ava as mailchimp